Brassica & Butterfly Life Cycles

What happens during a typical plant life cycle? What about the life cycle
of a familiar insect, like a butterfly? This activity explores the
life cycles of Fast Plants, or Brassica rapa, and Pieris rapae,
the cabbage white butterfly.

Materials Needed

Instructions

To prepare

Order your Fast Plants seeds and
butterfly eggs, and buy seeds for the Brassica Nursery from
a local garden shop (radish, turnip, and/or mustard seeds).
NOTE: You’ll need to plant
the seeds about five days before the butterfly eggs arrive,
so time their arrival
accordingly.

Both life cycles will
take about 30–40 days to complete. During
this time, make observations every 2–3 days. Use your Brassica & Butterfly
Data Sheets (PDF) to record what you observe and answer questions.